Women earn auto bid with victory in Lousville

The Duke men and women’s teams put themselves in position to qualify for the national championships with strong showings at the NCAA Southeast Regional at the University of Louisville Saturday. The Blue Devil women brought home their first regional title since 2005, totalling 69 points to pace the 35-team field and earn an automatic NCAA bid. “Everyone stepped up well, person for person,” women’s head coach Kevin Jermyn said. “This race was another positive step for us. We definitely feel like we are one of the best teams in the country, we just need to be a little tighter four through five to challenge the top teams.” Four runners earned all-region honors, led by sophomore Carly Seymour, who finished in fifth place out of 237 with a time of 20:28.85 in the 6K. Senior Kate Van Buskirk took sixth place, and freshmen Juliet Bottorff and Kayla Hale also earned all-region recognition. “I thought we saw nice improvement across the board,” Jermyn said. “We were able to pull away from some of the teams that were right behind us at the ACC Championships and we were stronger through our top three.” Duke’s closest competitor was Virginia, which totalled 113 points for the second-place team finish. N.C. State, William and Mary and North Carolina rounded out the top five. On the men’s side, the Blue Devils scored a probable at-large bid by placing fourth, barely edging Virginia by two points. Junior Bo Waggoner, in a time of 30:30.12, was the lone recipient of all-region honors with a 13th-place finish.  Three Duke runners finished about a minute behind Waggoner to miss out on all-region recognition. Sophomore Joshua Brewer led that group, ending up in 26th place with a time of 31:06.79. One disappointment for Duke was Cory Nanni, one of the team’s best runners, who finished 138th in the 10K after an injury hampered his performance. The Blue Devils will find out tonight if they will be invited to the NCAA Champoionships as one of 13 at-large entrants. “We feel very good about our chances for an at-large bid,” head coach Norm Ogilvie said. “We took a major hit with Nanni—he was going strong through 8K before his calf really tightened up during the last two kilometers. But other guys stepped up and got the job done.” The NCAA Championships will be held Nov. 23 in Terre Haute, Ind.